PHOTO ESSAY

Medal of Honor Winners

Thomas Shaw (c. 1900), Sergeant of Company K, Ninth Cavalry. Like many black soldiers after the Civil War, Shaw's military career was largely spent in pursuit of the various Indian tribes resisting the expansion of the United States into western Territories. A skilled sharpshooter, Shaw was awarded the Medal of Honor for his conduct in August 1881. In a particularly fierce battle in Carrizo Canyon, his company faced down an assault led by the fabled Apache chief Nana.